Proof of Earnings
622 words | Last Updated: July 25, 2009 |
For those of you who are looking for ways to make money online, you have most likely come across a screenshot showing proof of earnings. This is where the merchant who's selling you the latest internet marketing ebook, or the affiliate showing you how profitable it is to refer the product attempts to sway you into believing their claims.
But is it for real? How can you tell if it's just a scam?
One easy way of detecting if the affiliate is being less than forthright about their monetary claims is by validating their screenshots. No, I don't mean actually going to the third party payment processor and asking them if it's for real.
What I do mean is this: Join that third party affiliate network and see if the screenshots you get more or less match those shown in typical "proof of earnings" pages.
For example, anyone can easily join PayDotCom and eventually earn affiliate marketing commissions. Once these are reflected in your PayDotCom account, you will quickly see for yourself.
Here's an example of what an affiliate will see when you login at PDC to view your affiliate earnings:
PDC Screenshot 1
Please note that in the above screenshot, you will see a Totals row and below it you will find the products sold. In the product row, there is a product name, plus the price of that product in red.
Now here, on the other hand, is an example of a "proof of earnings" screenshot presented by an affiliate of an online product:
PDC Screenshot 2
Notice something?
Yes, it looks like a fair amount of editing was done. I can understand why one row (the Totals row) would disappear, because it's possible that affiliate might not want to reveal his or her total earnings, but I don't know why the box containing the name of the product sold by the affiliate would appear to be edited.
(Please ignore the differences in the shade of the colors, because these screenshots were made on different monitors.)
I'm not saying the affiliate went ahead and actually edited the screenshot.
What I am stating is that the screenshot appears edited (i.e. a row was removed, a row was moved up, a product description box's content was replaced with just the product name), and this has an impact on how people will perceive the earnings claim.
Here are some suggestions for using screenshots as proof of earnings:
1. Try to avoid deleting sections.
2. Use blurred images or solid color rectangles to hide portions you don't want people to see (perhaps due to privacy issues).
Yes, there are many courses and ebooks available on the internet that teach you how to make more money online, and the screenshots can look quite tantalizing. Just remember, though, that images can be heavily edited or "photoshopped" so it helps to test things for yourself.
On the other hand, there's no need to immediately point a finger at the merchant or affiliate and yell: "Scammer!" You can politely leave a comment in their blog, or simply ask them, and then wait for their response. After a reasonable amount of time, you can choose to go with your gut or make more tests.
Here's wishing you success in your online business, and your quest for credible sources of learning! 
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"Proof of Earnings"
First Posted: July 25, 2009 | Filed in: Make Money Online
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That is a very revealing post about the affiliate marketers claims.Thank you for bringing the truth into light for the people who get swayed by such claims and also for such marketers who are doing this mistake unknowingly. It will not only help newbies to think twice before blindly entering into any kind of project with any online company.
It looks like you're not under the same tab (MyAccount vs. MySales). Could it be the reason for the differences in layout?
Sorry about that, Tom. Here's the screenshot of the "My Sales" tab
Let's compare it with the "proof":
Editing earning screenshot is a big NO-NO...
but any experience affilaite marketer can easily spot the it..
thanks for the info.
It is very simple to edit the contents of a page without using photoshop entering the following line into the browser bar of IE will allow the numbers and heading s on the page to be changed : "javascript:document.body.contentEditable='true'; document.designMode='on'; void 0"- Dont believe everything you see.
I think for make money online niche blogs, the lesser the editions to the real proof of earnings, the better. It would make the author credible and that would enhance traffic and visitors of the site.